The Faculty Standing Committee assists faculty representatives in defining, selecting and developing themes to be presented and discussed at FDP meetings. The committee meets by teleconference on a monthly basis. The Faculty Standing Committee is led by a chair, who is a member of FDP Executive Committee and sits as vice-chair of the FDP, and a co-chair elected by FDP faculty representatives. Committee members work with the FDP faculty representatives to write white papers and to gather information from their campuses to document faculty perspectives on various issues. The committee also develops programming for the faculty representative sessions at FDP meetings. The chair of the faculty committee elicits input from others to provide expertise needed for the discussion of particular topics.

Initiatives

Administrative Support – Current Federal restrictions on the use of direct costs to support administrative assistance for faculty researchers is a significant issue for the committee. The group will explore alternatives to current processes that do not increase the overall cost of the research enterprise.

Principal Investigator Grant Administration Survey – The committee in 2007 published a survey of more than 6000 Federally-funded faculty members at FDP institutions. Results of the survey showed that 42% of the faculty time available for research is spent in award administrative activities. The committee is currently developing the next survey to monitor changes in the administrative burden associated with award management. Links to the 2007 survey are provided below.

Electronic Research Administration – The committee monitors developments among Federal agencies in online grant submission and review systems. The committee provides feedback to system developers to enhance and expedite proposal submission and review processes.

Compliance – The committee meets with Federal representatives and other experts to explore ways to expedite compliance with various Federal and institutional rules and regulations in research, including human subjects, animal use, and export controls.

Documents

2012 Faculty Burden Survey

The report on the 2012 survey is being written and will be available here shortly.